But subscription revenue is now a much bigger part of NYT’s overall revenue and ad tech CPMs are declining year over year. So it’s not a hard decision anymore.
If true this may have further tack on good effects like fewer click bait headlines and fewer errors in reporting with less pressure to get things out before details emerge.
"Clickbait" used to mean "Ten Reasons Clickbait isn't what it used to be... Number 8 will surprise you"!
Nowadays, people seem to complain about any headline that in any way has the potential to make people want to read the article.
From my anecdotal experience with editors at better publications (such as the NYT), they care far less about individual articles' metrics than people seem to believe.
At many of these publications, writers do not even have access to read metrics. (Bloomberg is the example I'm sure of, but there are others)
Headlines used to include the most important information, and the text for a link for the article would be the headline or something similarly descriptive. Nowadays links to articles often explicitly exclude information forcing you to the article to even see what it's about.
If the title is written in a way that withholds key information when it could just as well be included, I'm willing to call that clickbait. A headline alone shouldn't make me want to read the article. From my perspective, the headline's job is to let me know whether the contents are valuable enough to me that I want to read the article.
> "Clickbait" used to mean "Ten Reasons Clickbait isn't what it used to be... Number 8 will surprise you"!
I think the definition has expanded at the same time that the clickthrough/SEO/likes/dopamine optimization has become embraced by editors, who write the headlines. To me, clickbait is more about substance than style. It's an attentional lure into an article with disappointing substance, to varying extents. Various editors will stylize the headline for the sweet tooth of their demographic.
There's hardly any other reason to do it. Blowing your credibility like this hurts subscription revenue, so the only goal must be boosting your drive-by revenue (i.e. ad impressions).
But subscription revenue is now a much bigger part of NYT’s overall revenue and ad tech CPMs are declining year over year. So it’s not a hard decision anymore.